LONDON, UK: Leading independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight, says Google's latest entry into mortgage comparison poses little threat to incumbents in its current form. It bases this on how things have played out in the car insurance and credit card sector.

Capital Shopping Centres Group PLC (CSO) announced on Monday, 26 September 2011, that it has appointed Mike Butterworth as chief operating officer reporting to David Fischel, chief executive, with effect from 3 October.

The continued recovery of the UK commercial property market, coupled with the strengthening of the rand relative to pounds sterling, has presented South African investors with a unique opportunity to invest in the UK while capitalising on the recovery cycle.

LONDON, UK: The mortgage market is finally showing signs of recovery in the UK but it is the banks that are dominating. The top six banks increased their share of gross lending to 85%, leaving building societies struggling to keep up, finds Datamonitor.

The announcement by Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, that it would be opening a customer service centre in Cape Town in October has put South Africa firmly on the map as a preferred location for business process outsourcing (BPO).

LONDON, UK: The latest PwC analysis into corporate insolvency numbers demonstrates that the effect of the downturn on UK business is showing more signs of easing. A total of 3467 companies became insolvent in the second quarter of 2010. This represents a big 21% decrease on the previous quarter and a promising 28% decrease in comparison to the same quarter of 2009. Even on a rolling 12-month basis, the numbers show an 11% decrease in insolvencies. The retail sector is still among the worst affected, however.